Captive Souls
by Schingiuire Vristalica
Summary: AU set in EF. Without his help she would fail, but she had already betrayed him and he no longer offered aid. Cora knew Rumplestiltskin held the power to give her a kingdom, perhaps an empire. If he would not willingly help her, she will take that choice from him with the dagger containing his soul. Once he was hers, the world would kneel at her feet...
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any rights...I am powerless...I own nothing...

It was interesting how much power names held over an individual. Names were a magic all their own, especially against magical creatures such as dragons, fairies, some of the more powerful practitioners, and the Dark One. Rumplestiltskin had devoted a great deal of time researching and studying the power of names, learning exactly how that magic worked to little avail. At times, logic could easily be applied to magic, as if it were etched into the very lines of nature itself. Other times, however, magic had no reason at all.

As long as he knew a person's name, their complete name and how it was properly pronounced by the individual, he had a measure of power over them. He could see into their future, locate them within the realm, and even seal their fates with some of the deeper, darker magics.

Powerful creatures like him could hear their names spoken anywhere in the world, could hear when someone summoned in need. Those who did not know his name needed to use more complicated ways to contact. After all, yelling his title at the treetops did little to nothing for him.

For the Dark One, the power of a name was all the more dangerous. His true name was etched upon the blade of his dagger. With his name it bound him for eternity to the curse. The presence of his name upon that blade kept him forever chained to the dagger, never would he be truly free. Zoso had been very correct in the words spoken upon his death. He had made a deal that he did not fully understand, had been tricked into becoming the Dark One. That dagger had captured his soul. Whomever possessed it would completely control him.

Rumplestiltskin. The name glittered at him from the dagger's surface as she stood over him, lightly running her fingers across the edge. She had him trapped, though not in a physical trap. There were no bars, no walls, he wasn't chained, and yet she held his soul.

He couldn't stop the tremble and quiver of his body as he watched her fingers play over his name. She watched him as he rested on his knees at her feet, the golden reptile scales covering his green-grey shimmered in the dull light. Cora stood over him with the most infuriating smirk upon her features. In the past he had slaughtered entire families for humans giving him that very same look. Now there was absolutely nothing he could do.

"Offer me your right hand," her smooth voice commanded.

Never had another controlled him with the dagger and thus every sensation he now experienced was completely new. Gritting rotted teeth, he inclined his head, eyes squeezing shut against the words echoing in his skull. Her command grew louder and louder in his mind, shattering any other thought. Resisting wasn't an option, not really. He could either give in, or hesitate for a matter of seconds before the pain became so great his body would respond on its own.

Fighting the quake of his body, the captive sorcerer lifted his right hand, offering it palm up to the woman who continued to smile down at him. Her eyes never moved from his face, though Rumplestiltskin's pale golden eyes had shifted to avoid her gaze.

"I told you to retrieve a certain heart," she purred, circling his offered wrist with her free hand. Her fingers closed about his slender arm in a vice grip. "I should have expected you to wiggle through a loophole. It is, after all, in your nature," her tone was almost cheerful, as if she were delighting in every moment. "However unpleasant this may be, I'm doing everything for your own good, Rumple. I can't have you jumping through loopholes too often, you see. So like any wild dog, we just have to retrain your instincts for my own purposes."

"Train me, dearie?" he released a slight chuckle, his twitching lips lifting in a ghosting smirk. "Do you honestly expect to make chaos something you can predict?"

Cora's smile only seemed to grow at his words, a dancing sparkle in her eyes. Lifting the dagger, she looked over the blade as he finished his statement. Catching his eyes in hers, she slid his sleeve back to expose his forearm. Carefully, Cora layed the kris dagger against the inside of his elbow and dragged upward to his palm.

Rumplestiltskin's arm convulsed as a howl of agony rose from his lungs. A thick, black ooze rose to the surface of the shorn flesh, slowly rolling to drip down the sides of his arm and his green-grey skin seemed to sicken around the edge of the wound, scales peeling ever so slightly. The cut was only slight, she had not applied much pressure, and yet it cut through him like hot metal through butter. The touch felt as if his blood was instantly boiling, seizing his arm in liquid fire, intense pain burning the nerve endings.

She kept her grip on his wrist, avoiding the touch of his blood to her clothing as fat drops dripped in stringing trails like hot tar to splatter across the floor. The very point of the dagger rested at the center of his palm as she waited for him to quiet. His wounds would not heal without her approval, thus he would continue to bleed, an ever flowing well of darkness until she bid him whole. Open wounds created by this particular weapon would fade to a dull pain but never fully cease their hurt, at least not until they were probably stitched by magic.

"I did not say you could speak, dear," Cora chastised softly as if speaking to a child. "As I was saying before you rudely interrupted, I asked, and quite nicely, for you to bring me the heart of King Midas."

Slowly, she began to put pressure on the blade, letting the metal burrow into his palm. His blood began to well at the center of his hand as his fingers convulsed outward. She sighed as he whimpered, and his muscles instinctively tensing to pull his arm away. Even with his magically augmented strength, he could not pull away from the one who owned him, not unless she let him.

"What I can't understand," she continued, nodding her head to the table at her side where a brightly glowing heart rested, beating softly. "Is why you would bring me a heart that clearly isn't from Midas."

The Dark One's pale eyes were locked on the blade as she slowly twisted it, digging it deeper into his palm until it began to grind against bone, soft gasps of pain filtered from his grinding teeth and his head dropped to hang limply from his shoulders as he shuddered, barely hearing her words. "So I want you to look closely, Rumple, and explain why you felt this particular heart completed your task."

Her hand loosened around his wrist, sliding lightly along the underside of his arm until she gripped his elbow and, in an almost motherly manner, pulled him to his feet. Never did she remove the dagger, instead repositioning his hand near the heart and pressing down on the knife to impale his hand to the wood.

Rumplestiltskin bit back a second cry as fear swelled within his gut. He despised this feeling of helplessness, had not felt such since last he was human and now this mortal woman whom he had once cared for brought him back to his knees. It was a place he had sworn to himself never would he revisit.

Swallowing and focusing his mind past the pain, he glared at the glowing heart doing all he could to ignore the twitching of his hand like some pinned insect upon the blade.

"You wanted the heart of King Midas," he hissed, his words tinged with acid and pain. "Sometimes the heart which will control them best is not within their bodies, but within others. This, dearie, is the heart of Lady Ophillia, the woman he pines after." The growl of his words elevated to a hiss then an outright cry as Cora began to slowly twist the blade, letting its edges cut and grind against his bones. "I did you a favor! He will be more apt to keep your secrets and work for you if you control his love!" The claws of his free hand dug into the wooden table's edge.

Liquid darkness in one of its purest forms leaked around his hand, rolling slowly toward the heart. "This is not what I told you to retrieve, dear," Cora's voice replied smooth as silk. With a sigh, she pulled the dagger free with a sharp twist. Rumplestiltskin's cry echoed around the room and he snatched his hand back once it was released. Holding the wounded appendage close to his chest, the Dark One backed away from her, expression set in one of fury and sharp caution.

Cora ignored him, or at least seemed to have her attention somewhere else. She dipped the dagger's tip into the small pool of darkness, a soft smile on her features as she plucked Ophillia's heart from the table where it was in danger of being touched by Rumplestiltskin's blood. What a powerful catalyst for magic his blood must be. Curiously, Cora wondered if his blood touched the heart, if darkness would corrupt the being.

"Were you genuine in your concern to please me, I may consider your excuse. However, you and I both know you cared little about that. You found a loop hole and jumped through it like a circus animal."

The queen turned her head, movements languid and careful. A smile tugged at her lips as she watched him glare daggers toward her, still clutching his wounded hand. She gave the dagger a lazy wave in his direction, an unspoken flair of magic twisting her desire into his marrow.

With a grunt, the Dark One found himself slammed to his knees. The impact of his knees onto the hard floor jarred him, but there was no pain. True he felt the pressure, but since becoming the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin had not been bothered by mundane pain. Normal weapons, unenchanted of course, could tear his flesh, true. He could feel the separation of his skin and muscle, of arrows digging into him, but there was no pain at all, nor did his blood leak from such wounds. Magic and magic infused weapons were a completely different matter entirely. If those enchantments were designed to hurt magical creatures, he would feel it. They couldn't kill him, but that didn't make it pleasant.

Lifting his head, Rumplestiltskin frowned as he watched Cora fully turn to regard him with one of her cold, smiling masks. His pale eyes flicked, glancing quickly at the dagger held loosely between her fingers before jumping back to her face. It was still so alien to see the weapon in another's hands, alien and completely terrifying.

"You do so enjoy twisting the truth and playing with words, don't you, Rumple dear?"

His upper lip twitched, a snarl ghosting across his expression though he didn't offer an answer. It had been a rhetorical question anyway, one designed to taunt him. The sorcerer leaned back, gaze narrowing as inhuman eyes watched her every step, already calculating as he listened to her speech.

Cora paused a bare foot from him, crouching slightly to rest the tip of the dagger beneath his chin, idly tilting his head back to meet her stare. She watched a shudder ripple across his flesh, one black taloned hand shielding its injured brother to his chest.

"I would expect nothing less from my clever boy," she purred down to him. There was a gleam in her eyes, one Rumplestiltskin had well come to read as very dangerous.

"And yet you persist in thinking I'll suddenly come to my senses and stop finding ways to undermine you," he growled through clenched teeth, eyes narrowing hatefully. The dagger's touch to his scaled flesh burned, though he tried not to let that little fact be noticed. There was a likely chance she knew anyway.

His comment and tone seemed to be ill received, judging by the sudden shift in her expression. Normally she kept the smile upon her lips, even a soft smirk. It was her eyes that changed, the light within them hardening venomously.

The Dark One met her seething glare with one of his own, shrunken pupils gazing up from pools of enlarged pale amber irises. His heart dropped when her smirk only grew, it was a bare inch but he saw the twitch of muscle. Sliding the heart into a pocket of her dress, her now free hand brushed over the top of his head, combing through the tight wave and tangles of hair. His lips twitched, a dark snarl building across his face. He hated when she touched him, a fact which she knew quite well.

"You have some nasty habits that need breaking," she cooed, her tone now very quiet. Calm before the storm.

That made him flinch, quelling his rage as his mind backpeddled to a mode designed for self preservation. She was about to hurt him for his impertinence. Expecting such, at least, was something he had learned quite quickly once her fingers had closed around his soul.

"My apologies," he half hissed, feeling the flat of his dagger sliding forward beneath his chin, tip scraping along the soft flesh of his throat. Begging wasn't in his nature, at least not as the Dark One. He was never very good at begging even while human, fear yes, begging no. He was, however, getting better at crossing the line with Cora and finding all the right words she wanted to hear to escape anything too nasty. Begging and manipulation were two entirely different creatures.

"Shhh," she purred, her free hand sliding down the side of his face, cupping his cheek gently as if trying to calm an agitated child. "No apology necessary." Her eyes softened and he felt himself relaxing, tilting his head into her touch even as the dagger pressed against the soft skin at his throat.

It was a foreign feel, to understand he was being manipulated with the dagger. She was feeding magic into the blade, into his soul, twisting him like a puppet. It had been surprising the first time he experienced it. Cora could alter his emotions to a degree, make him more violent and aggressive with anger, elevate his fear, or calm him into placidity with only a desire on her part. It muddled his thoughts like a fog, reshaped his core being to whatever she wanted him to be at that moment. True, the affect never lasted very long as she had to continually feed it, but it always made him feel so violated.

"Much better," her voice filtered through the mist of his mind. "Now open your mouth, dear."

Bound to obey without question and his mind too muddled to fully realize or understand what she was doing, he complied. Jaw relaxing, pressing lightly against the dagger as he parted his lips. Cora shifted, sliding the dagger from his throat to pull back and rest only the tip upon the blackened yellow teeth of his lower jaw. Some still coherent part of his mind, the part that understood everything that was happening to him but was unable to do anything about it, tried to fight, trapped as he was within his own body.

"Too clever for your own good," she purred. "To twist my order and continually defy me with your delightful dance of words." Her hand snaked back to his hair, tangling her long fingers into the mass and pulling back so he almost choked at the angle. Slowly, she slid the dagger forward, letting the flat of the blade press against his tongue. "I do not enjoy your games today, Dark One."

Rumplestiltskin's eyes snapped wide as she released the hold on his mind, the fog suddenly lifting and giving him a very clear, crisp understanding of his situation. He had no chance to react. Cora twisted the blade, letting a sharp edge cut into his tongue and slice deep. She ripped outward, leaving a deep gash across the muscle.

Cora released her grip on his hair, turning her back to him, her grin growing at the resulting screech which issued forth from him. Rumplestiltskin doubled over, both his whole and injured hands clawing at his mouth. Pain turned his vision white, blood welling within his mouth, dripping with the viscosity of melted cheese from his lips and chin, coating his fingers. He choked on it with a continued, wild scream.

She left him to his pain, settling on a cushioned chair to glance idly through one of the room's many windows. Once his cries and wet, ragged breathing subsided, Cora glanced back to him, catching sight of the intense hatred etched deep into the creases of his face. The look was made all the more feral with the presence of his blood staining his teeth and golden scales. She observed the way his body twitched, clawed fingers spasming and curling. She knew him well enough to know he was fantasizing on one of the many colorful ways he had imagined for her death.

"Clean yourself up and fetch Midas' heart. Please refrain from any more games."

"As you desire," he hissed, the words coming out painfully. Permission given, his wounds healed in a rapid flash of magic, blood vanishing, though the acid taste of his blood was still thick upon his tongue. As was the memory of this most recent lesson.

Cora turned away just before he vanished, resting curled fingers against her chin as she watched guards patrol the castle courtyard. Though she did not openly admit it with words, she enjoyed these distractions Rumplestiltskin's defiance presented. Her plans would be realized despite his attempts otherwise.


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Comments boost my morale.

**The Past...**

Rumplestiltskin had abandoned her, ignored every call she'd made since the night of her betrayal. She'd felt his presence several times after she'd given birth to Regina, had known he'd visited the babe but had not seen him. Wherever the Dark One went, he left behind a trace of his darkness, like the trail of a slug. It faded fairly quickly, but she could tell when he'd visited.

Cora stood beneath the canopy of trees, hidden safely away from any wandering eyes. It had been several minutes since she'd called his name for the last time. Somehow she'd known he wouldn't answer, though she'd hoped he would. There was desperation in her soul and he would smell it like freshly spilled blood to a predator.

"So this is how you want to play the game, Rumplestiltskin," Cora sighed, using his true name to guarantee he heard her wherever he was. She clasped her hands beneath the warmth of her cloak, closing her eyes to breathe in the cool night's air. "Very well, if you will not come to me, I will go to you."

The Dark One's lair was a remarkable place nestled into a valley at the foot of a mountain range she never cared to learn the name of. Why Rumplestiltskin had chosen this place for his home she could easily understand. It was very much out of the way when traveling from nearly any direction, he had the mountains surrounding him to keep out any unwanted armies that decided they wanted to attack him, along with a nasty bog mist that tended to rise every morning and evening to veil the entire area in fog. He was nothing if not dramatic.

It was impossible to teleport into the Dark One's castle. He kept everything so shrouded in wards that if any sorcerer tried to enter they'd find themselves with a very nasty headache and blasted into a nearby canyon. While she had never experienced this first hand, Cora had seen it happen. She settled for appearing at the grand double doors that marked the entrance to the massive castle, flicking her hand to open them and stride within.

There was an eerie stillness to the entire place, and everything absolutely _reeked _of dark magic. That was his mark, his slug's trail. He'd lived here so long the taste of it had long since seeped into the very stone of the walls.

"Rumplestiltskin," she called, her voice echoing like music through the halls.

He would know she was here, he would have known the the moment she stepped foot into his domain. It was only polite, however, to give him another chance to appear before stalking through the halls to locate him.

"My, you are quite the tenacious one, aren't you dearie?"

Cora turned, watching as Rumplestiltskin stepped through the doors behind her and closed them with a snap of his fingers. He strode past her, climbing the short flight of stairs that she knew would take him into the main hall. There was a tenseness to him. She remembered that set of his muscles well, it was well contained anger being repurposed. Was he really so upset by her appearance?

Cora followed him into the hall, her dark eyes casually sliding across the displayed treasures he'd either stolen, killed for, or gathered in his deals. She'd always imagined he was a bit like a dragon, sitting on a mound of immeasurable wealth and eating anyone that dared take a single sliver from him.

"A trait I seem to remember you admired," she watched him, watched the shift of his muscles and subtle body language. She needed to find the perfect moment, needed to play her game with all the right cards. If there was any amount of affection or weakness of love in his heart for her, Cora knew she would have him hooked quickly enough.

What she did not realize, is he knew exactly what she was up to. It was unimaginable to trick the Dark One. It was complete fantasy to trick him twice.

"Here for a pleasant visit then?" Rumplestiltskin gave her no chance to answer, snapping clawed fingers as he looked up to the ceiling. "No, no that's not it," he mused.

Cora pursed her lips, dark eyes narrowing slightly and watched him play his game. She settled into a soft, cushioned chair, gloved hands clasped carefully in her lap.

"Ah! You're here to make a deal. What's the matter, dearie? Little kingdom in the hills not everything you imagined?" Rumplestiltskin leaned against the long table set in the center of the room, his amber eyes glittering spite.

"Are you done, Rumple?" Cora smiled at him, brushing a dainty hand along her knee to smooth out her dress. "Yes, I came for a deal. Things could have been so much easier had you answered my summons."

He sneered at her, tapping a black nail on the table, behaving almost in boredom. "Sorry. You see, for a deal to happen you need two interested parties." Stabbing a claw at her, he smirked. "And where you're concerned, I'm not interested."

"Not even when you hear what I have to offer?" Cora smiled. It was the smile of one who knew something the other did not, but Rumplestiltskin would have none of it.

"You've nothing to offer me anymore, Cora." Pushing away, he twirled a hand at her, tossing his head to the side. "Not even the fulfillment of our last deal. I've no interest in it any longer." There was an unspoken line between the two of them. _You squandered your chance. _

Cora pursed her lips, having known this was going to be difficult but as he had mentioned, she wasn't one to give up so easily. "Surely you know the reason I'm here? The neighboring kingdom has declared war on us. Our allies have abandoned us and there's nothing left. We are losing miles of land daily. You were once very interested in Regina, told me once she'd give you what you wanted. How can she help you in the future if our kingdom is destroyed?"

Rumplestiltskin listened to her explanation, a quirk of his lips when Regina was mentioned. When he spoke again, his voice was low, more human sounding than the higher pitch of his normal tone. This was no mere shift in his vocalizations as he tended to do when excited, copying accents or styles of speech he'd heard on others through his many years. At one time this could very well have been his real voice. He spoke in seriousness, and there were dark threats unspoken that floated in the dark aura surrounding him.

"Offering me your daughter for your own comfort? How very like you, Cora. No deal. Regina will give me what I want some day, but you will have no hand in it." He waved a hand at her, the chair she was perched upon lurching to throw her to her feet. "Leave, Cora. Return to the crumbling kingdom you tricked me for. I do hope it was worth it."

OoOoO

**The Present...**

Cora turned the dagger slowly, watching firelight glimmer from the blade and dance reflected onto the walls. With the Dark One under her command, what had been a loosing war had become a massacre. No one knew, of course, what had truly saved them, that the Dark One had augmented the remaining soldiers with his magic. Cora had no intentions of letting her husband or anyone else, for that matter, know about her new pet. Not until she had a firm plan in mind.

The simple command, to make it possible for her kingdom to win the war, had made her feel so powerful. This was no plain manipulation of a man, this was the complete control over a monster, a demon, of immense power. She could feel him through the dagger, feel his wild, enraged thrashing against the will that held him.

It had taken so much work and careful planning along with no small amount of luck to procure the dagger from Rumplestiltskin's castle. He had been quite clever in his hiding places, but she had won. The memory of his face, the feral unconstrained wrath that had exploded from him pulled Cora's lips into a smirk. The darkness that had radiated from him was so condensed even she had seen it perfectly.

"_Remain unseen and undetected by all others but myself_," she had told him. "_Ensure my kingdom wins this war._"

Cora had thought he might find a loophole, that he might find a way to kill her. What few, rare and ancient texts she had located that even mentioned the Dark Dagger hinted of the Dark One being unable to attack its Master. There was little she understood about the dagger's control, her control, over Rumplestiltskin.

Ever since that day, she'd kept him hidden deep beneath the castle, locking him in a hidden room within the dungeons so no one could find him. True, he could easily escape the stone walls surrounding him, but he would not leave so long as she desired him to be there. That had been the most interesting of her discoveries. Rumplestiltskin had dropped to his knees at her feet, bristling with fury, and she had not spoken a single word. Cora had merely desired it, felt the command rise upon her lips whilst looking deep at the dagger's blade. He'd dropped like a stone, resting on his knees and spewing forth a vile mix of curses and dark promises. His voice had been so warped in rage it was just a continual, demonic growl.

Tilting her head back, Cora stared hard at the dagger, feeling the Dark One writhing within her power. Cora knew she could not hide him for very much longer. Someone would notice the strange new weapon she carried on her person wherever she went. Someone would notice the new, dangerous gleam in her eyes. With so much power now under her control, Cora knew she had to form a plan for the future. There were many options.

She could kill him. That was something mentioned in one of the ancient texts. The dagger resting in her hands now was the only weapon in existence that could kill the Dark One. Those who stabbed the current Dark One in the heart would take the power and the curse onto themselves. Were she to desire that power held in his curse, she could take it and he would be helpless to stop her. The very thought made Cora close her eyes and fill her lungs with a deep breath. To wield the Dark One's power. Nothing would stand in her way. She would rule the entire realm.

Cora paused, opening her eyes and staring into the dancing flames within the hearth. No, she could not do that. Rumplestiltskin paid a heavy price for his power, evidenced by more than his appearance. The curse had turned him into a near literal demon. It gave him an entirely different nature and different desires than those of normal men. She could not let the darkness control her, to take over her will and make her part of it. Nor would she give herself such a weakness as the dagger. To be something so easy, to merely hold it and have control over him.

To control the Dark One using the weapon was much more simple. She could get everything she desired, along with Rumplestiltskin's centuries of experience and knowledge. The man had unparalleled knowledge of magic in his skull. It would take her at least that long to have his understanding. As long as she held the dagger, so long as it remained in her possession, she could control all the power and knowledge of the Dark One.

The precise nature of the Dark Dagger was something veiled in mystery. None of the ancient texts she had procured went into any level of detail of how exactly the Dark One could be controlled. Simply that he could be. As to the level, extent, and limitations of that control, either no one knew or all writings of that nature had been destroyed. Were that the case, their destruction was most likely at the hands of past Dark Ones.

The only way she could learn anything about how the dagger worked was for trial and error. However, an error in this case could mean her death. Rumplestiltskin was no creature to play games with, and certainly a creature who did not take having his most priced possession stolen from under his nose. Cora was under no illusions the Dark One would spare her or not leap through the first opportunity to end her existence. She would have to be careful and fully think through every situation. She very well knew she was no longer playing with fire as she had when she tricked him those years ago. No. She was playing with the deepest evil in the realms. Rumplestiltskin would not just kill her, he would eat her soul.

OoOoO

Rumplestiltskin paced the tiny cell, dragging the claws of one hand along the rough cut walls. There was no light here, no torches or windows. Yet he could see perfectly, his normally shrunken pupils expanded to gather the darkness around him. He was a thing made of magic, made of pure darkness. Seeing through it was a very simple ability of his.

How Cora had taken control of his dagger he still could not completely piece together. She had been planning it for some time, that much he understood. Most likely from the very moment he had turned her request for aid down. True, he did revel in the thought of her kingdom falling, of the sorceress losing everything she was working so hard to achieve. What he did not take into account was just how _far_ Cora would go to get what she wanted. Never did he anticipate that she would look to taking control of him.

Rumplestiltskin had kept the existence of the dagger a well guarded secret. He had put the weapon behind so many locks and traps. Wards that would melt the very skin from the bones of mortals and turn them to dust had been built around it. Only his hand could call it from the ever moving vault. She did not share with him her methods, did not even give him a chance to properly channel the true volume and extent of his wrath. She had made him kneel, had commanded him to save her kingdom then locked him in this cursed little room once everything was completed.

No magic. He'd been ordered to not perform any magic. She would not offer him any sort of creature comfort. True, he could not die from starvation or thirst, but he enjoyed food and drink as much as any creature. To him they were more simple enjoyments. At this particular moment, however, Rumplestiltskin desired nothing more than to sharpen his teeth, grow them into fangs, and rip the sorceress's heart from her chest with only his teeth to rend through her flesh.

He could feel the dagger in her hands, feel his soul at her mercy. Rumplestiltskin did not enjoy that feeling. There was a crushing helplessness gripping his chest, making the coward deep inside him tremble in horror. There was no where to run, no corner he could hide in. This wasn't some enemy or tormenter who would try to track him down. Cora had but to call and he would be forced to answer her summons. She could do anything she desired to him and there was not a damn thing he could do against her.

Pausing at the door of his cell, Rumplestiltskin pressed his forehead against the bars, wrists resting on the crossbar. He knew he would have to be imprisoned before his curse would be enacted, but this was too soon. This was something he had not seen coming and that very thought frightened him. How could he control a situation when he was completely in another's control. This new game would have to be played very carefully. There was also the looming threat of Cora taking his life and his power. If she desired his curse she could take it from him without him ever being able to defend himself.

"Dammit," he hissed under his breath, slamming a fist into the bars and turning on a heel to pace the three steps to the far wall.

The Dark One knew his rage was boiling over. He must keep that under control if he could have any chance of salvaging this situation. Cora was a deadly opponent, one who had outsmarted him once. She had proved how dangerous she was.

Rolling his shoulders, Rumplestiltskin pressed his back to the wall, ignoring the rings and chains hanging from the stone. All this was just show. She was hiding him for whatever purpose spun the gears in her little mind. His only chance was his tongue and cleverness. She could not control his thoughts. At least, he did not think so. Surely the dagger's control had some limitation there. He was a puppet, true. However, he would never be completely and totally hers.

The cramped space, walls and bars were driving him mad. He could nothing but pace the few steps from wall to wall, dragging his black claws over the rough stone. The ceiling was too low to even climb on. Rumplestiltskin returned to the bars, curling his scaled fingers around the cold, rusting metal. He was almost shaking from rage and madness. He needed to escape, to get out of this place. It was perfectly within his power. Already his mind was spinning, the gears turning and running through equations and magic that would put him outside of this little cage. He could blow the door right off, physically rip the door from the wall, teleport himself to the other side.

Every time his mind thought of these possibilities he suddenly felt a crushing weight upon his shoulders, driving him to his knees and closing his throat off until he was gasping for breath, eyes wide and panting in terror. She had told him to remain here, to wait inside until she called him or gave him permission to leave. That order more than anything drove into his marrow the crushing realization that he was helpless. He was subject to her mercy. Between the pair of them, not a single shred of mercy existed.


End file.
